Overview Of The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial
“One of the worst days in America’s history saw some of the bravest acts in Americans’ history. We’ll always honor the heroes of 9/11. And here at this hallowed place, we pledge that we will never forget their sacrifice.”- Former President George W. Bush in 2008. This quote, which was said at the dedication of the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial, gives us an insight into why the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial was built, to honor those who died on that horrible day. To as the quote says ”never forget their sacrifice.” That’s why this Memorial was built. Covered below is the memorial itself, interesting facts about the memorial, the event that caused the memorial to be created and the impact 9/11 had on the world. The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial is a nation memorial honoring the lives lost at the Pentagon on September 11th. It was dedicated on September 11th by former president George W. Bush.
For each one of the 184 lives lost that day, a small aluminium bench with a granite slab inlaid with the victim’s name on rests on top. Underneath the bench, there is small pool of water, if multiple people from that family died then carved into the sides of the pool with be their names. Surrounding the benches are 85 Crepe Myrtle tree, which will offer shade for years to come. Along the left side of the memorial is the Age Wall, it there to represent the age of the victims. At the shortest, it’s three inches tall and at its tallest, the wall is 71 inches tall. The memorial uses aluminium and granite for the bench itself, but for the decor: bricks, concrete, and other various type of stone are used. A competition was held for the design of the memorial, Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman ended winning the competition, construction of their design began on June 5th 2006, and ended on August 1 2008. The memorial is located at 1 N Rotary Rd, Arlington, VA 22202. Around the memorial are many other famous buildings, such as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery, and the Pentagon. The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial is one of the newest memorials in D.C., but despite this the history and background of the memorial are surprisingly considerable. The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial honors the lives lost on September 11, 2001, specifically the lives lost on Flight 77. Flight 77 crashed in the Pentagon, and killed 184 people, 125 in the Pentagon, and 59 on the aircraft itself. The 5 hijackers are, of course, not included in the memorial.
The significance of the memorial, especially to the victims families, is huge; it honors the lost lives of that day, and shows great respect to everyone who was killed. The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial has two main symbols, the Age Wall, and the benches that the memorial is based around. The Age Wall is a wall that spans the entire left edge of the memorial. As the wall continues the along the side, it get taller in correlation with the ages of the victims. The youngest was 3 year old Dana Falkenberg, and the oldest was 71 year old John D. Yamnicky, a Navy veteran. The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial has numerous interesting facts, and design decisions. One of which was in order to unify the victims, despite if they were man or woman, military or civilian, rich or poor. The benches were arranged by month and date of birth, rather than to order them by military status, gender, or race. The construction started on June 5th 2006, and ended on August 1 2008, and the memorial was dedicated by George W. Bush on September 11th 2008. 7 years after the 9/11 attacks. And if more then one member of a family died in the attacks, there names are inscribed on their individual benches, as well as in the pool of each of the members of the family. This is also one of few memorials to be open 24 hours a day.While everyone knows about 9/11, and of course what happened that awful day, there are many small details, and even just interesting things about 9/11. On September 11, 2001, 19 Al Qaeda terrorist hijacked, and eventually performed three suicide attacks, two on the World Trade Center, and one of the Pentagon.
A fourth was planned for the White House but failed, and ended up in a Pennsylvania field. In the end, these attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, and bought the US into a brutal war in Iraq. The four hijacked flights, American Airlines or United flights 11, 75, 175, 77 were all hijacked around 8am and within an hour and a half later, three of the four hit their intended targets. Flights 11 and 175 both hit the WTC, at 8:46am, flight 11 hit floors 93 to 99 on the north tower. Just 17 minutes later, flight 175 hit floors 75 to 85 on the south, 56 minutes later, the south tower collapsed. Flight 77, hit the military sector of the pentagon, and Flight 93 ended up in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Shortly after flight 77 hit the Pentagon, for the first time ever, the entire US airspace was closed. Many conspiracy theories exist around certain events of 9/11, usually they revolve around the attacks on the World Trade Center, or if US or other governments knew ahead of time that the attacks were coming.
A common theory surrounding the attacks on the WTC, is that steel beam, such as the ones found in the WTC, can’t be melted by jet fuel. So bomb and other devices were planned into the building to help start the fires that happened in the building. But the overwhelming majority of both experts in construction and many other field agree that while jet fuel doesn’t burn hot enough to “melt” steel. The steel loses over 50% of its strength at jet fuel burning temperatures, so a significance hit such as multiple concrete floor dropping on the beam would bend or misshape the beam. Another theory states that the Israel had advanced knowledge of the attack, and that they informed as many as 4,000 Israeli worker in the WTC of the attack. This is highly disputed, and is regarded as anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli propaganda.
One of the more believed theory is that WTC 7, a smaller 47 story building to the side of the larger 2 towers, wasn’t destroyed in relation of the collapse of the two towers but rather that explosive devices were placed in that building as well as the towers. This is often cited as proof that the US planned the 9/11 attack. But this, as many of these theory has been disproven, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released a report of this, in the NIST report it was said that the fire started by the burning debris from the towers this started a series of other smaller fires linked to the office furnishings. As probable as this may be, many conspiracy theorists say that this was a cover up, to hide that fact that the US did in fact carry out the 9/11 attacks. Why these theorists think the US is highly debated but a common theory is that the US wanted to get an excuse to go to war with Iraq and later Afghanistan to protect either oil interests in the region or to help allies in the Middle East to get rid of or weaken their enemies.
